Test/Review of Qlite Rev.A 7135*8 Multiple Modes Circuit Board 3.04A

Qlite Rev.A 7135*8 Multiple Modes Circuit Board 3.04A





Driver is from Intl-outdoor.com

Official specifications:

  • Input voltage: 2.8V - 4.5V
  • Current: 3.04A
  • Constant current
  • PCB diameter: 17mm
  • PCB thickness: 1.6mm
  • Components height: 4.7mm
  • Memory function (sets in after 2 seconds)
  • No high pitch noises
  • No visible flicker on any mode
  • Reverse polarity protection
  • Gold plated spring
  • Gold plated contacts
  • Copper leads with tinned ends already soldered
  • Low voltage protection: At 2.9-3V the light will switch to an emergency low mode. At 2.8V the light will flash 9 times to announce imminent cut-off.
  • Strobe mode is 10Hz
  • Beacon cycle is 2Hz blink for 1 second, 4 seconds light off



Group of modes:
1st Star : 2% - 25% - 100% (Default)
2nd Star : 5% - 30% - 100% - Strobe - Beacon
3rd Star : 15% - 100%
4th Star : 5mA - 2% - 25% - 100%

Group selection is done with solder bridges, 1st star has a bridge on the circuit board and never need a solder bridge.



This driver exist in many versions, with the same hardware and different program in the processor (Atmel Tiny13A). These programs control the pwm frequency, the modes and the function of the stars. For the stars only 2, 3 and 4 are used, the first is only part of the design and is not really used. It also means that it is never necessary to add a solder blob or cut the trace connecting it to the ring.
The driver can also have more or less 7135 chips, this defines the (maximum) led current.



Measurements

Tested with: Cree XM-L2 led.
Diameter 17mm
Max. height: 4.7m
Modes no star: low, medium, high
Modes 2st star: low, medium, high, strobe, beacon
Modes 3st star: low, high
Modes 4st star: moonlight, low, medium, high
The mode set selection is done with solder bridges on the driver.
The driver has memory, the actual mode is stored when the light is off for a short time.
A short off/on will select next mode. The light must be off a few seconds to not select next mode when turned on.
Driver is a linear regulator.
Strobe 8.9 Hz, duty cycle 40%
Beacon, pulse width 34ms, repetition rate 4.8 sec
Pwm is 16.5 kHz
The driver flashes a number of times when the voltage is down to 2.80 volt, then it turns the led off.



The four modes banks had the same high mode, but medium and low varies between them.

As usual pulsing current (i.e. pwm) makes it difficult to calculate power and efficiency. In any modes except high I am calculating with a fixed led voltage, but due to the high pwm frequency it is not very precise.
Due to the high pwm frequency the power and efficiency calculations has large errors in the lower modes



High 1st star



High mode works exactly as expected from a linear driver, efficiency goes up, when voltage goes down, until the driver goes out of regulation at 3.6 volt.
At 3.05 volt the driver reduces the led brightness and just above 2.8 volt the led is turned off.




The green curve shows the average voltage across the led, below 3.05 volt it is reduced by the pwm.



The driver does not disable pwm at high.



Medium 1st star



Due to the fast pwm, the driver does not turn fully on. This makes the driver drop out of regulation at a fairly high voltage.






Due to the high pwm frequency, the curve it not square, but rounded.



Low 1st star



In low mode the light is never in regulation.






In low the pwm does not even turn fully on.



High 2st star










Medium 2st star









Low 2st star









Strobe 2st star



Strobe is 8.9 Hz with 40% duty cycle.



Beacon 2st star



Beacon uses puls width 34ms with dual flashes and a repetition rate of 4.8 sec.



High 3st star









Low 3st star









High 4st star








Medium 4st star









Low 4st star









Moonlight 4st star

In this mode the current consumption is too low for my "input current" range. As can be seen on the curve it has a resolution of 1mA.







The moonlight mode is simply the pwm at it minimum setting.



Here i have zoomed in on the signals. The MP (microprocessor) gives a two micro second pulse out, but the 7135 is about 2 us (micro seconds) to turn on. This will give a very short pulse to the led and is also very sensitive to tolerances in the driver.
I.e. a 7135 needing 1.8 us to turn on will work perfectly, but one needing 2.0 us will not show any light. The slow turn on looks like it may be because the output from the MP cannot supply enough current for a fast turn on.



Conclusion

Due to the linear regulation in this driver it does only work in a limited voltage range. It is simple construction, that is easy to modify like adding more 7135 (increase led current) or remove some 7135 chips (Decrease led current).
The tested version of this driver has a very high pwm frequency, this does increase the loss in the driver a little bit.



Notes

How do I test a led driver
List of all tested drivers

Thanks HKJ for testing this very popular driver, it is nice to have the data now to see how it behaves.

Thank you HKJ for the thorough review of this popular driver.

Thanks for testing this board, it provides me with useful data :slight_smile:

Thanks a ton ! And happy new year btw!

Thanx HKJ for the review. I just want to double check something. You said:

I always thought that NANJG drivers were "on-time" memory and required modification to be "off-time" memory?

This driver does remember selected mode.

is this the same driver as: this
and does it mean that i can use it with unprotected cells because of 2.7v cutoff?

Yes, it has on-time memory.

The driver is the same, the software in the driver is probably not the same. The low voltage cutoff is software based and it looks like the one you linked to starts blinking when the battery is low.

If you use cells that can be discharged to 2.5 volt you are fairly safe with unprotected cell on this type of driver, even if it is without any warning, you just has to turn off the light when it gets weak.

Does the Nanjg 105C also turn the LED off when voltage is too low?
I know it has low voltage warning but i remember nothing about what happens after the warning

Also they look like the same driver, this one even has 105C written on it, are there any differences besides the 380mA chips instead of 350mA

Nope it does not turn off. There's also the whine present on lower modes (that also depends on hearing condition which gets altered with age, I do not mean sound pressure but frequency range).

They are the same driver, except for the program in the microcontroller.

ALL the 105Cs are the same hardware, only physical differences being the number & current rating of the 7135s. Everything else - how it handles the low battery situation, modes, PWM frequency (which is what causes some of them to squeal, and others not), what the stars do (or if the stars are used at all), ALL of that is down to the firmware version loaded on the MCU. All of it can be changed with different FW.

Just for reference the Qlite in Intl Outdoors ALXM module steps down to low mode. I have mine configured default low-med-high.
My runtime graph is here:

Thanks for the review. I am about to attempt to install one. Looks like I will be happy with the driver. Think I will choose the 4th star.

not sure when reading your review... Does this have PWM on High?

Just want to confirm - there is no PWM on high.

Yes it has a PWM as you can see on the graphs because they did not program it in a way without PWM in the 100% mode. So it’s not 100% high but unnoticeable bit lower.

HKJ:
Why did the original Nanjg 105c had a drop at higher voltages and reprogrammed Qlite version did not?

Different measurement? 380mA somehow magically perform better? Or was better cooled?

Another, why do the photos of Nanjg105c and it’s measurement signal a 8*380mA instead of 8*350mA? It’s supposed to be 7135s with 35x not 38x and have 2800mA not roughly 3000mA as in the graph.

Bug somewhere?

It does never turn the pwm completely off, but you will not be able to see it.

The magic is a high speed fan placed close to the driver, i.e. it is much better cooled.

I cannot answer for what 7135 chips are mounted on the drivers I get.

Ha!

Sure. I have a few but none 380mA versions and all my 350mA 7135s are marked 35x as in 35 and some random letter, M, P, T, or whatever. Where as on pics in shops I can see on the 380mA versions that they are marked 38x and 350mA versions are 35x. Although those spare 7135s on a reel seem to come from a different supply/manufacturer and are marked differently 7135 1234 etc.

So I think they sent you 380mA version with 3.04A instead of 2.80A :wink: